German grammar

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German grammar
Nouns
Verbs
Articles
Adjectives
Pronouns
Adverbial phrases
Conjugation
Sentence structure

This article discusses the grammar of the German language, focusing on Standard German.

Contents

[edit] Declension

German nouns are declined according to three genders, two numbers (singular and plural) and four cases.

The three genders are masculine (männlich/Maskulinum), feminine (weiblich/Femininum) and neuter (sächlich/Neutrum). Unlike English, which does not assign a gender to most nouns, the gender of a German noun and the gender of the thing to which the noun refers often differ. For example, in German, a stone (der Stein) is masculine, whereas a girl (das Mädchen) is neuter. Thus, the gender of a noun mainly depends on the form of the word, not on its real sex. This is called "grammatical gender" a feature of many other languages, such as French. "Mädchen", for example, is the diminutive form of an archaic feminine German noun die Maid, meaning "young woman" (rarely used today, and related to the english word "maid"), and words ending with the diminutive ending -chen (related to English "-kin") are always neuter. The arbitrary nature of grammatical gender can be seen in the example of three common pieces of cutlery: "knife" (das Messer) is a neuter word, "fork" (die Gabel) is a feminine word, and "spoon" (der Löffel) is a masculine word. Students of German are often advised to learn German nouns with their accompanying definite article (equivalent of the word "the").

The cases are the nominative (Nominativ), genitive (Genitiv), dative (Dativ), and accusative (Akkusativ). The case of a particular noun, and therefore the ending used for the noun, depends on the grammatical function of the noun in the sentence.

  • Nominative: The subject of a sentence, the thing doing the action
  • Genitive: The possessor of something, or the object of certain other prepositions.
  • Dative: The indirect object, as in when an object is given to someone, or the object of certain other prepositions
  • Accusative: The direct object, the thing which is directly receiving the action, or the object of certain prepositions

The case of a noun after a preposition is decided by that preposition. No prepositions require the nominative case, but any other case may follow one, for example, the preposition für (for) is followed by the accusative case, the word mit (with) is followed by the dative, and the word wegen (because of) is followed by the genitive case (although in casual speech, and with pronouns, the dative case is usually used). Certain prepositions have objects either in dative or accusative, depending on whether the use implies position (e.g. in der Küche = "in the kitchen", dative case) or direction (e.g. in die Küche ("into the kitchen", accusative case).

The declension of an adjective depends not only on the gender, number and case of the noun it modifies, but also on whether the indefinite article, definite article or no article is used with it. The following table shows two cases which exemplify all three cases:

Masculine nominative singular Feminine dative singular
definite article der schöne Mann vor der verschlossenen Tür
indefinite article ein schöner Mann vor einer verschlossenen Tür
no article schöner Mann vor verschlossener Tür

The use of the genitive case is declining in spoken German; speakers often substitute the dative case for it in conversation. The genitive case remains standard in written communication.

[edit] Plurals

The German language has twelve different ways of forming the plural. A student of German as a foreign language must learn the plural for each new noun learned; although a great many feminine nouns are very regular in the formation of the plural, many masculine and neuter nouns are not. For example, some plurals are formed with an "n", some with "en", some with an umlaut and an "e" or an umlaut and an "en", other plurals are the same as the singular, some add "er" or an umlaut and "er", etc.

[edit] Nominal (or noun) phrases

(The content of this section is not yet applicable for proper names.)

A German nominal phrase, in general, consists of the following components in the following order:
article, number (cardinal or ordinal), adjective(s), noun, genitive attribute, position(s), relative clause reflexive pronoun

  • "Die dritte umwerfende Vorstellung des Schillerdramas in dieser Woche in Hamburg"

(the third stunning performance of the drama by Schiller this week in Hamburg)

Of course, most noun phrases are not this complicated; adjectives, numbers, genitive attributes, positions, relative clauses and emphasizers are always optional.

A nominal phrase contains at least a cardinal number, an adjective, a pronoun, or a noun. It always has an article, except if it is an indefinite plural noun or refers to an uncountable mass.

  • "Die Drei" (the three of them)
  • "Der Große" (the tall man)
  • "Der Mann" (the man)

If the noun is uncountable, an article is not used; otherwise, the meaning of the sentence changes.

  • "Ich kaufe billiges Bier" (I buy cheap beer)
  • "Ich kaufe ein billiges Bier" (I buy a bottle of cheap beer)
  • "Ich habe Geld" (I have money)
  • "Ich habe das Geld" (I have the money) or (I have enough money to...)

A nominal phrase can be regarded a single unit. It has a case, a number, and a gender. Case and number depend on the context, whereas the gender is determined by the main noun.

[edit] The genitive attribute

A nominal phrase may have a genitive attribute, for example to express possession. This attribute may be seen as merely another nominal phrase in the genitive case which may hang off another nominal phrase.

  • "Der Beruf des alten Mannes" (The old man's profession)
  • "Die Hütte des Häuptlings des Stammes" (The hut of the chief of the tribe)
(genitive phrase has its own genitive phrase). This is uncommon in modern German, one would say: "Die Hütte des Stammeshäuptlings" (The hut of the tribe's chief)

In early high German, the genitive attribute can consist of a personal pronoun in its genitive case. In modern German, this is no longer used; the corresponding possessive pronoun is used instead.

OLD: "Die Gnade seiner" (his grace)
NEW: "Seine Gnade"

[edit] Position

A nominal phrase may contain a "position phrase"; this may be seen as merely another nominal phrase with a preposition (or postposition) or a pronominal adverb (See Adverbial phrases).

  • "Eine Wolke am Himmel" (a cloud in the sky)
  • "Der Bundeskanzler während des Bürgerkriegs im Kongo" (the Chancellor during the civil war in the Congo)
(position phrase has its own position phrase)
  • "Der Regen im Dschungel im Sommer" (the rain in the jungle in the summer)
(Several position phrases)
  • "Der Berg dort" (that mountain over there)

[edit] Extended attribute phrase

Unlike English, German permits lengthy nominal modifiers such as

"Der während des Bürgerkrieges amtierende Premierminister" (the during the civil war holding-office prime minister) or "Die noch zu Anfang des Kurses relativ kleinen, aber doch merklichen Verständigungsschwierigkeiten" (literally: The still at the beginning of the course relatively small but nevertheless noticeable difficulties in communication).

These are a feature of written (particularly educated) German. One hears them in the context of formal oral communications as well (such as news broadcasts, speeches, etc.).

[edit] Relative clause

A nominal phrase will often have a relative clause.

[edit] Nouns

Main article: German nouns

A German noun has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and belongs to one of three declensions. These features remain unaltered by inflection but must be considered in this process. The grammatical gender influences articles, adjectives and pronouns. Note that gender and sex differ in many cases, as mentioned above.

Number (singular, plural) and case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive) must be taken into account in the process of declension.

The declension can be more difficult than in other languages such as Latin; not only the word ending, but also the root may be altered by inflecting.

[edit] Articles and article-like words

Main article: German articles

Articles have a feature called "strength", which influences the declension of the adjectives. There are strong articles, weak articles, and articles that have strong and weak cases. Sometimes this feature is not constant in daily use.

The inflected forms depend on the number, the case and the gender of the corresponding noun. Articles have the same plural forms for all three genders.

[edit] Cardinal numbers

Cardinal numbers are always placed before any adjectives. If the number is not very high, it is usually not combined with an indefinite plural article like "einige" or "mehrere". Personal pronouns of the first and second person are placed in front of numbers. Personal pronouns of the third person cannot be used with numbers.

"Drei Hunde" (three dogs)
"Die vier apokalyptischen Reiter" (the four horsemen of the Apocalypse)
NOT: "Einige fünf Äpfel" BUT: "Einige Äpfel" or "Fünf Äpfel" (some apples, five apples)
"Ein paar tausend Euro" (a couple of thousand euro)
"Wir vier" (the four of us)

If you use a cardinal number, you must use the plural form of the nominal phrase, in contrast to languages like Turkish.

NOT: "Zehn Pferd" (turk. "On At")
BUT: "Zehn Pferde" (ten horses)
EXCEPTION: "Zehn Bier", "Zehn Biere" (both possible in some cases like drinks)

Whereas there is a cardinal number meaning "one" in English, Germans use the indefinite article instead. The difference is expressed by the intonation.

"Ein rotes Buch" can mean
"a red book": ein rotes Buch; or
"one red book": ein rotes Buch

The numbers zwei (two) and drei (three) have endings for case in some cases. Where an adjective would have weak endings, numbers don't have endings. If an adjective had strong endings, these numbers may also have strong endings in the genitive case

"das Haus zweier junger Frauen" (two young women's house)

If there is no other word carrying the strong ending of the genitive plural, the numbers must carry it.

"die Reise dreier Schwestern" (three sisters' voyage)

If these numbers are centre of a nominal phrase in the dative plural and no other word carries case markers, they may carry dative endings.

"Ich habe zweien Bananen gegeben" (I've given bananas to two (of them))(old pronunciation)

Special case for One in German: One can be represented as : "eins", "eine", "einer", "eines", "einem" or "einen" depending on the sentence.

[edit] Adjectives

Main article: German adjectives

To correctly agree German adjectives, the case, number and gender of the nominal phrase must be considered along with the article of the noun. German adjectives, normally go before the noun which they are changing. German adjectives have an ending before the noun. The ending is normally the letter “-e” in the singular form and “-en” in the plural form.

Like articles, adjectives use the same plural endings for all three genders.

"Ein lauter Krach" (a loud noise)
"Der laute Krach" (the loud noise)
"Der große, schöne Mond" (the big, beautiful moon)

Participles may be used as adjectives and are treated in the same way.

In contrast to Romance languages, adjectives are only declined in the attributive position (that is, when used in nominal phrases to describe a noun directly). Predicative adjectives, separated from the noun by "to be", for example, are not declined and are indistinguishable from adverbs.

NOT: "Die Musik ist laute" BUT "Die Musik ist laut" ((the) music is loud)

There are three degrees of comparison: positive form, comparative form and superlative form. In contrast to Latin or Italian, there is no grammatical feature for the absolute superlative (elative).

[edit] Pronouns

Main article: German pronouns

German pronouns of the first person refer to the speaker; those of the second person refer to an addressed person. The pronouns of the third person may be used to replace nominal phrases. These have the same gender, number and case as the original nominal phrase. This goes for other pronouns, too.

pronoun [position(s)] [relative clause]

[edit] Personal pronouns

Personal Pronouns
1st sg 2nd sg 3rd sg 1st pl 2nd pl 3rd pl 2nd formal
I you he she it we you they you
Nominative ich du er sie es wir ihr sie Sie
Accusative mich dich ihn sie es uns euch sie Sie
Dative mir dir ihm ihr ihm uns euch ihnen Ihnen
Genitive meiner deiner seiner ihrer seiner unser euer ihrer Ihrer

[edit] Adverbial phrases

Main article: German adverbial phrases

[edit] Verbs

Main article: German verbs
Main article: German conjugation

German verbs may be classified as either weak, with a dental consonant inflection, or strong, showing a vowel gradation (ablaut). Both of these are regular systems. Most verbs of both types are regular, though various subgroups and anomalies do arise. The only completely irregular verb in the language is "sein" (to be). However, textbooks for foreign learners often class all strong verbs as irregular. There are fewer than 200 strong and irregular verbs, and there is a gradual tendency for strong verbs to become weak. However, the frequency of strong verbs in German is unquestionably greater than in English.

[edit] Flavoring particles

Flavoring particles (Abtönungspartikel) are a parts of speech common to several Germanic languages but absent from English. These words affect the tone of a sentence instead of conveying a specific literal meaning. Typical examples of this kind of word in German are "doch", "(ein)mal", "halt", "eben", "nun", "schon", "eh" or "ja". But the sound of a word does not always convey the same meaning. And often these flavoring particles have a sound-alike word that will convey a specific literal meaning, depending on context. For example, "ja" in some contexts means "yes". The flavoring use has a tenuous connection to the more specific meaning.

Some examples:

"Halt" and "eben" imply that the (often unpleasant) fact expressed in a sentence cannot be changed and must be accepted.

"Gute Kleider sind eben teuer." (Good clothes are expensive, it can't be helped.)
"Er hat mich provoziert, da habe ich ihn halt geschlagen." (He provoked me, so I hit him – what do you expect?)
"Es ist halt so." (That's just how it is)

"Ja" indicates that the speaker thinks a certain fact should be known to the listener and intends his statement to be more of a reminder or conclusion.

"Ich habe ihm ein Buch geschenkt, er liest ja sehr gerne." (I presented him with a book; as you know he likes to read.)
"Ich verleihe kein Geld, das zerstört ja nur Freundschaften." (I never lend money. Everyone knows that only destroys friendships.)

"Mal" indicates a certain immediacy to the action, or it can carry a meaning something akin to "at some time".

"Sing mal etwas Schönes!" (Sing something pretty for once)
"Warst du schon mal in Österreich?" (Have you ever been to Austria?)

"Doch" can have two meanings. For one, it can serve as a reply to a real or imagined, or pre-emptively answered, disagreement, hesitation, or wrong assumption on the part of the listener, or other people. In different situations this can have different effects.

"Komm doch her!" (Why don't you come here?)
"Komm doch endlich her!" (Come here at last!)
"Ich habe dir doch gesagt, dass es nicht so ist." (I DID tell you that it's not like that)
"Ich kenne mich in Berlin aus. Ich war doch letztes Jahr schon dort." (I know my way around Berlin. Did you forget I visited it last year already?)

In that, "doch" can be similar to "schon" - but "schon" implies an actual qualification of the statement, often made explicit in a phrase with "aber" (but):

"Ich war schon auf der Party, aber Spaß hatte ich nicht." (I was, in fact, at the party, but I did not enjoy myself.)

In other contexts, "doch" indicates that the action described in the sentence was, in fact, unlikely to occur:

"Du bist also doch gekommen!" (You came after all)
"Ich sehe nicht viel fern, aber wenn etwas Gutes kommt, schalte ich doch ein." (I don't watch much TV, but I do tune in if something good comes on.)

"Eh", meaning "in any case" in most German dialects, implies an emphasized assertion in many Austrian dialects:

"Ich hab ihm eh gesagt, dass er sich wärmer anziehen soll." (I told him to put on warmer clothes in the first place.)
"Das ist eh nicht wahr." (That's not true anyway.)

The effect that a flavoring particle has is often vague and dependent on the overall context. Speakers often use them somewhat excessively, and sometimes combine several particles, as in "doch mal", "ja nun", or even "ja doch nun mal". They are a feature typical of the spoken language and should be used in formal writing only with careful discretion.

[edit] Sentences

Main article: German sentence structure

German sentence structure is somewhat more complex than in other languages, with phrases regularly inverted for both questions and subordinate phrases.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also


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